Work Text:
The thing is Daichi doesn’t even know what happened, or how it happened. One day he was barking orders to their team at summer training camp, and two weeks later he is outside one of the last buildings that still remain partially intact— with a baseball bat instead of a volleyball ball in his hands.
The sky is red, as it has been for the last fortnight, with ugly purple clouds scattered all over it. He still has to experience the rain in this new world; but Daichi knows it’s gonna be terrifying. Maybe it’ll be acid rain, maybe it’s not gonna rain at all—
Nobody knows anything.
They are alone in the middle of fucking nowhere, no parents, no teachers, no one but them. And now, they don’t know where the so-called “survey and rescue team” is. They said their goodbyes almost a week ago and nobody has returned yet. The phones don’t work anymore, so the only thing they can do is wait. But the gap they have left is growing bigger every day.
Daichi shakes his head and hits his face with the palm of his hands, hard enough for it to bruise and sting for a few minutes.
He can’t start thinking like that. He’s a Captain now, with capital C, the one in charge of the protection not only of the West Area, but also of half of the boys and girls there. It doesn’t matter that he misses Noya’s loud laugh, Tsukishima’s stoic presence, Bokuto’s exuberance, Kiyoko calming eyes or Hinata’s enthusiasm— he needs to remind calm and collected, for the sake of everyone.
He wanted to go with them. He screamed until his voice broke, until Suga started trying to calm him down, all of their anxieties hitting them like one hard blow. It was hard saying goodbye to them —to their kids, to their friends— but Suga was right when he told him they needed someone reliable to stay behind and protect the camp, the people there, and wait for news.
Nobody told him the waiting would be so bad and so long.
“You seem distracted.”
Daichi raises his arm, bat ready to strike the head of the person that has sneaked behind him, but he recognises the laugh that follows the words. And it’s so weird to hear it now, after two weeks of tears and shouts and panic, that the bat almost falls to the floor.
“You look awful.”
“Yeah? You don’t look any better, Kuroo.”
Kuroo smiles sadly, dark circles under his eyes, hair even more dishevelled. He leans his body until it touches the wall and lets it slide to the floor, patting the dying grass next to him without even looking at Daichi. He knows it’s not the best option, that they need to stay alert. Even so, Daichi lets the bat fall to his feet and sits down next to his friend, no space gap between their bodies.
Kuroo’s hand reaches his and they intertwine their fingers. It’s weird, this thing going on between them. Not in a bad way, more in a “I can’t believe we had to survive the end of the world to get to this point, the point where I’d kill and die for you, where I’d make love to you and let you make love to me, where I’d cry while you hug me and you’d grab my shirt while breathing in my neck trying to control a panic attack” kind of way.
“Do you think they are ok?”
Kuroo tilts his head, letting it fall on Daichi’s. He remains silent for a few minutes and then speaks. “Yeah.”
“What makes you think so?”
“If I don’t believe in them, I don’t have anything else to believe in.”
“Never took you for the believing type.”
Kuroo smacks him in the forehead with his free hand and they start wrestling on the floor, laughing like kids and insulting each other with lame insults —which make them laugh even more.
After a few minutes they end up lying together on the hard floor, a rock under Kuroo’s side, his head on Daichi’s chest, and their legs tangled. The silence settles over them slowly and the fake illusion of happiness disappears.
Daichi wraps his arm around Kuroo’s shoulders, and both of them know what the other is thinking. “I want to believe in them too, like I did on the court.”
“What's stopping you?”
“That I don’t know anything anymore.”
“You know them.”
“Yeah. And I knew the sky was blue and that my parents were gonna be home when we returned, probably with a big dinner on the table because ‘you need to get your strength back, son, you deserve a big meal after all the practice you’ve done’.” His voice cracks at the end and the next he knows is that Kuroo is the one embracing him now. “God, I miss everyone so much.”
“I know.”
It’s hard to breathe, but Kuroo kisses him, soothing him, hugging him. It’s not the best way to calm someone, but it’s the best they have. Neither of them knows if it will last, but until then, they’ll wait and pray and kiss and fuck.
Maybe their world has really ended. If that’s the reality now, nobody is going to judge them or tell them to stop. Maybe they can build something new.
Maybe everything is going to be ok.